Chinese Media at Trump’s R.N.C.

In Cleveland, Zhang Yuanan is the rare correspondent from her news organization at an American political convention.

As the sole reporter dispatched to Cleveland from Caixin Media, a Chinese news organization, Zhang Yuanan arrived with a mission. Caixin rarely sends correspondents to American political conventions, but in this campaign Donald Trump has devoted unusual attention to China—blaming the country for “killing” America on trade and “beating us in everything.” Zhang was assigned to investigate.

She is twenty-eight. Her parents, who are civil servants in the city of Yangzhou, were worried. “They heard about all the shootings recently,” she said, and, over FaceTime, they advised her to “just stay away from the crowds.” Tall and rangy, with a broad smile, Zhang attended college in Beijing and perfected her English in Melbourne; Caixin posted her to Washington, D.C., in 2014.

A few hours before the Party was scheduled to make Trump the nominee, Zhang stepped out of Quicken Loans Arena to report on the origins of the Trump-themed merchandise for sale. She waded into a scene of benign political anarchy: a man, shouting, waved a sign—“Repent & Be Converted”; a guy in a Hillary Clinton mask wore a T-shirt marked “INFIDEL.” On Zhang’s first day in Cleveland, someone asked her, “Do you have religious freedom in China?” It was complicated, she said. “He asked, ‘Do you have religious belief?’ And I said no. He kind of looked at me sadly and said, ‘God bless you anyway.’ ”

Zhang stopped at a table of T-shirts that spelled out “TRUMP” in rhinestones. The seller was wearing an American-flag cowboy hat and an American-flag shirt with the sleeves torn off. Zhang asked, “Do you know where they are made?” The seller said the rhinestones came from Korea, but he wasn’t sure about the shirts. “O.K., thank you,” she said, and studied the tags. Made in Haiti.

Part of Zhang’s assignment was explaining to Chinese readers who Trump is. Although Trump often says, “I beat China all the time,” he had little name recognition there until recently. “Some people watched ‘The Apprentice,’ ” Zhang said.

At a table with a spread of bobbleheads and bow ties, she picked up a tin of mints (“Monica Lewinsky’s Ex-Boyfriend’s Wife for President Peppermints”) and read, “Tin made in China, product made in U.S.A.” She examined a roll of novelty toilet paper inscribed with “We Shall Overcomb.” “About the hair?” she asked. “I don’t think I’d need to explain that.”

She mused, “Why do you think Americans want those low-end manufacturing jobs to come back here?” In China people don’t exactly love their jobs making peppermint tins. “China wants to upgrade its manufacturing chain,” she said.

When Zhang reached Public Square, a large plaza designated for protests, police were separating rival groups, including Black Lives Matter and the Westboro Baptist Church. Donna Bell, a woman watching the commotion, said that someone had confronted Alex Jones, a Trump supporter and conspiracy theorist whose Web site, Infowars, has a large following. “He was spewing, and the anti group was spewing back at him,” Bell said. (Later, Jones’s YouTube channel posted a video headlined “Alex Jones Attacked by Rabid Commies.”)

It was a confusing picture for someone who grew up in a country with one major political party and no public squares designated for protest. Zhang snapped a photo of the fracas and then had second thoughts about sharing it. “I wouldn’t post these pictures on WeChat,” a Chinese social network, she said. “My parents would freak out.”

Back on the Convention floor, Representative Chris Collins, the first member of Congress to endorse Trump, was at the lectern: “I proudly represent western New York, which has been devastated by unfair trade deals allowing countries like China and Mexico to steal our jobs, robbing our children of the opportunity to live the American dream.” He thundered, “President Trump is going to bring back our stolen jobs!”

Did this make Zhang uncomfortable?

“I’m O.K.,” she said. “It’s true—a lot of manufacturing jobs are now in China.” What mystified her was Trump’s promise to bring the jobs back. “If it’s not China, it’s still not going to be the U.S. It’s going to be in Vietnam and other countries.”

Zhang turned to a woman behind her who wore a red-white-and-blue sequinned cap, and said, “You have a very nice outfit.” The woman was a physical therapist who originally supported Ben Carson but had warmed to Trump’s calls for a stronger military.

Zhang asked, “Do you think the U.S. is being threatened by the rise of China?”

The woman studied her for a moment and smiled. “I know a lot of companies that have gone to China and done extremely well,” she said. “It’s refreshing to have a new”—she paused, groping for the right word—“relationship.” ♦

This article appears in the print edition of the August 1, 2016, issue, with the headline “Made in China.”